


keep him safe

by clarakent (niewanyin)



Series: Jason Todd Week [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Implied/Referenced Prostitution, Mother-Son Relationship, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niewanyin/pseuds/clarakent
Summary: My real name is Tim Drake. I'm . . . I'm from the future.
Relationships: Catherine Todd & Jason Todd
Series: Jason Todd Week [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1642177
Comments: 10
Kudos: 309
Collections: Time Travel Fics That Water My Crops





	keep him safe

**Author's Note:**

> For Time Travel Day for Jason Todd Week
> 
> Thanks to Myosotis for reading!

Jason kicks the fire hydrant, crossing his arms in anger. He knows that his mom is sick, and he knows that she has a lot of trouble doing things now, but she had been promising to take him to the library for three weeks now and every Saturday, she couldn't get out of bed. Jason knows that she really isn't feeling well, because she was throwing up when he went downstairs, but it's really frustrating when all he wants to do is get some new books and return his old ones. They all have fines on them, and he's counting the money. He doesn't have three dollars to pay them all, and he doesn't know if his mom does.

Ever since she got sick, she had to stop working all her jobs and get some help from the government, but Jason doesn't think they're very helpful.

The spring heat is turning into summer, even though the sun is setting and the sky is turning dark. Soon Jason will be out of school. He can still bring books from the school library, but it's not a very good selection and Jason doesn't know what he's going to do when he doesn't even have that. He's alone on the sidewalk, not wanting to go upstairs to an apartment that smells like vomit and his mother trying to smile through his pain. She doesn't like Jason to see her like this, so she sends him outside, but she makes Jason promise that he won't leave this block and Jason isn't very good at disobeying his mom.

"Kid?" he hears behind him, and Jason jumps, spinning around, arms up and ready to fight. His mom doesn't like him talking to strange men, even though she talks to them all the time.

Jason frowns as he takes in the man in front of him. He's someone who's just moved into their apartment building, right across from Jason in fact. He doesn't know his name, but he  _ looks _ trustworthy. But Jason knows that it's useless to judge people based on that, because before his mom got sick, she would have a lot of people in the apartment that looked nice, but would just end up making her cry. Jason doesn't know a lot of those details because he was put into the closest with headphones, a flashlight, and a book, but he would see his mom after with bruises and tears on her cheeks, smiling at Jason as she told him that she was okay. She was never angry.

Well, except with that one man who asked if he paid extra, if he could have Jason too.

Jason had never seen his mom so angry or yell so loud as she shoved the man out of her apartment, grabbed her gun, and showed Jason how to use it if anyone ever tried to touch in a way that made him feel uncomfortable.

The man in front of him is pretty short, not even as tall as his mom. He's skinny, but Jason can see how the material of his shirt clings to him, and he looks like he has more muscles than you would expect. His black hair is long, almost touching his shoulders, and his eyes are really dark blue. With his pale skin, Jason think that the best word to describe him is pretty, but he doesn't say that out loud because no man wants to be called pretty. At least that's what Marco's big brother says, and Enrique controls an entire street, so Jason's pretty sure he knows what he's talking about.

The man's lips quirk up, like he's trying to suppress a smile when he's Jason's arms up, though Jason doesn't think he's an adult-adult. He thinks he's a teenager, which is still old, but it's not as old as Jason first thought. 

"What's your name?" Jason barks out, pleased out how tough he sounds. He tilts his head to the side. "And how old are you?"

"Tim," the man says, his voice high and pleasant. "Tim Alvins. And I'm eighteen."

Jason nods, giving the man another once over. "You're rich, aren't you?" His shirt is a nice material, and Jason's getting a vibe. He doesn't think Tim knows a lot of hard living.

He gives into his smile, nodding his head absentmindedly. "In another life. And a little in this one. Wanted to talk to your mom about that, kid. Do you think she's willing to talk?"

Jason knows he's smart, and he can read between the lines. "Do you want to give us money?" he asks, and his heart starts beating in excitement.

It would be really nice to be able to have food more than once a day.

Tim stills and bites hip lip. "God, you're smart," he whispers. Jason thinks that he wasn't supposed to hear that, so he doesn't say anything. He can get away with a  _ lot _ when people think that he isn't paying attention. In a normal voice, he just says, "I just want to talk to your mom, kid. Sooner better than later."

Jason sighs. He doesn't think his mom is in the food to talk to Tim, but he doesn't think she'll ever be in the mood to talk to someone else and Jason really thinks the man's going to give them money, so that should make her feel better.

He starts to walk into the building, glancing behind him once just to make sure that Tim is following him. He is, and Jason runs up the stairs, two at a time, until they're on the third floor and he's at his door. It's unlocked because their lock broke two months ago and they can't get anyone to fix it. Usually they try to situate a chair so it stays shut, but his mom can't get out of bed half the time to do that, and it's hard for her to get out of it to let Jason in when he's coming home. He worries about it, but nothing bad has happened yet, so hopefully nothing bad will  _ keep _ happening.

He pushes open the door, yelling into the room, "Mom?"

"Jayby?" he hears her weak voice come in response. "Honey, did you have a nice day?"

No, he didn't, but Jason will never tell her that. His mom has so many things going on in her life, she doesn't need Jason making her feel bad.

"Yeah," Jason says. "Can you get up? The new guy wants to talk to you." Jason runs down the hallway and into the bedroom, hissing as softly as he can, "I think he wants to give us money."

His mom blinks at him, her eyes tired, but upon his words she frowns in confusion and stands up on shaky legs, following him to the living room and Tim. He smiles kindly at both of them, and Jason really thinks that things might work out with Tim around now. He looks up at his mom, and she smiles down at him. She doesn't really smile a lot, but she always smiles at him. But it's not like how she used to smile, and Jason misses it.

She looks up at Tim, that smile still on her face. "Hi there, Mister. . . ."

"Tim Alvins," he says quickly, "and you can call me Tim. Catherine Todd, right? I've heard your name mentioned around along with your son's."

His mom nods. "It's Catherine. Jason said you wanted to speak to me?"

He frowns because his mom looks really tired, and Tim does the same. "Please, Catherine, sit down. I just have some information that I think you really want to know about."

His mom sighs, "Tim-"

"It's about Sheila."

Jason frowns. He has no idea who Sheila is, but his mom's face goes instantly right and Jason has a bad feeling that he shouldn't have brought Tim up here. He opens his mouth so that he can tell the man to leave and never come back to say something that makes his mom upset, but his mom grabs his shoulder. "Jason, go into the bedroom and shut the door."

He turns toward her to argue, but he shuts his mouth when he sees the look on her face. With a nod, he goes to the bedroom, stomping his feet so she knows he's  _ really _ not happy about it.

He closes the door with a slam, but then carefully opens it back up without a sound so that way he can make sure that he's overhearing the entire conversation. He doesn't want to miss any of it, especially when it made his mom send him away.

"What are you?" his mother hisses. "Her brother? A cousin? Jason's  _ my _ son."

"I'm nothing to her," Tim says calmly. "But one day, I'm going to be something to your son." He sighs. "Please, sit down. You're going to need to."

His mother huffs, but there's shuffling and Jason knows that she did it.

Tim takes a deep breath, and then starts talking. "My real name is Tim Drake. I'm . . . I'm from the future. Thirteen years in the future. I got here by accident and in twenty-four hours, I'm going to return. And I'm here because I want to spare Jason some of the pain he's going to go through in life, but I knew I had to talk to you. I knew I had to talk to the one real parent he has now."

Jason doesn't believe it, and he knows his mom doesn't either, because she starts laughing. "What the hell are you on?"

"Nothing," Tim says, his voice annoyingly calm. "But I know you're dying. It's going to happen in about a year."

"The doctor's give me two," his mother spits out, but Jason's heart goes to the floor. His mom isn't dying. She can't be dying. She's just sick, but she's not dying because she's  _ mom _ and mom's don't die. They just don't. Jason thinks they have to sign something saying that.

"They could be right," Tim says. "They could even be wrong because you end up living much longer than two years, but only if you listen to everything that I tell you."

There must be something about Tim's face, or maybe it's because his voice suddenly isn't annoying anymore with his calmness, but his mother doesn't say anything, and Tim keeps going. "You're going to die in a year. Jason is going to live on the streets for two years until he's adopted by Bruce Wayne, the man who later adopts me." Tim lets out a laugh. "We're brothers actually, even though we've gone through a lot of hell to get a good relationship. A few years after Bruce adopts him . . . something goes down with Sheila, and we all think he's dead. And when he comes back a few years after that, he's no longer the boy he was, and it takes him awhile to become the man he was always meant to be." Tim's voice changes, becoming something higher and faster. "Listen to me, I know that I can convince Bruce to take Jason in now and get you  _ good _ doctors now. You won't have to suffer, and Jason will have better memories of you. And you can talk to him about Willis and Sheila, and I'll tell Bruce all about it as well, so what happened to him won't happen. He'll be safe." Heavy breathing, and then the softest plea. "Please, Catherine. Help me keep him safe."

Jason waits with bated breath, hands clasped over his mouth so that way neither of them will hear him. His mom is silent, nothing besides her breathing. And then: "You really think you can convince Bruce Wayne?"

Tim laughs, breathlessly and with delight. "I know I can." He sighs with relief, and then yells out, "Jason, you can come out."

How the hell did he know?

He walks into the living room to see Tim's watery smile and his mother sitting shell-shocked on the couch, Tim standing by the door with his hand on the handle. "I'll see you around, kid," he whispers, before he walks through the door. Jason tries to chase after him, but his mom's voice stops him. "Jason," she whispers, "I'm so sorry."

Jason stares at her.

His mom's dying.

Definitely in a year, and Jason knows that whatever she's sick with, it's only a matter of when, not if, before she dies.

Jason is used to dealing with a lot, and he tries so hard not to make his mom worry, but he can't stop himself. He runs into her arms, burying his face into her neck as he starts to sob. He wants to remember this hug.

He doesn't know how many more he's going to get.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm salazarastark on tumblr as well, so follow me [here](https://salazarastark.tumblr.com/)! I'm not as active as I'd like to be, but I'm always up for talking about my fics or anything else!


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